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Andrew's wonderful world of pop culture

aussiemoose

I am an extrovert gay man living in Sydney who loves Indian food, current affairs, music, film and reading, caramel anything, and a beautiful guy called Steve who makes every day a delight. I am trying to get two novels in a trilogy ready for e-publication, love my iPhone & iPod, and am secretly Canadian in my soul. Life is fun, exciting and joyful and I aim to make the absolute most of it!

Road to Eurovision 2020: Week 1 – Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus

Posted on April 4, 2020March 19, 2021 by aussiemoose

This is normally how I begin these review posts … What is the Eurovision Song Contest?Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is Continue Reading

Posted In Music, TVTagged In Eurovision 2020

Try some COVID-19 social distancing Wes Anderson style

Posted on April 4, 2020April 3, 2020 by aussiemoose

Want to practice safe social distancing? It’s easy: just pretend you’re in a Wes Anderson film. (synopsis (c) Little White Lies via Laughing Squid) There is a gorgeous artistic sensibility to every Wes Anderson film, one that manifests in snappy, quirky dialogue, idiosyncratic visual flourishes and characters who seem to Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Six Seasons … and a reunion? Not quite the hoped-for movie but pretty cool even so

Posted on April 3, 2020April 3, 2020 by aussiemoose

If you are a fan of Dan Harmon’s brilliantly quirky sitcom Community, you will be well acquainted with the idea of Six Seasons and a Movie, the rallying cry from fans everywhere who dream of the perfect send off for one of the best and most original comedy shows of Continue Reading

Posted In TV

Songs, songs and more songs #24: Coach & Ref, I Break Horses, Jadu Heart, Boys Noize (+ Rico Nasty), AJR + Eurovision 2020 update

Posted on April 3, 2020April 2, 2020 by aussiemoose

Do you feel like life has an unsettlingly otherworldly feel to it at the moment? COVID-19 has well and truly put the pandemic cat among the pigeons and it’s easy to feel like life is so mixed up that there’s no hope of it resembling normal ever again. But as Continue Reading

Posted In Music

Book review: Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman

Posted on April 1, 2020April 1, 2020 by aussiemoose

If there’s one “truth” we are told growing up that needs some serious re-examination if we are to have any hope of getting through life with our sanity and emotional good health intact, it’s the idea that there is something inviolable about the good things that happen to us. Were Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Comics review: Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad

Posted on April 1, 2020March 31, 2020 by aussiemoose

What first attracted me to the books of Asterix all those years ago in a town of 5000 whose library had a delightful inclination to stocking European children’s authors of every imaginable stripe, was the sheer, good-humoured insanity of it all. Here was a rich, clever take on history which Continue Reading

Posted In Comics

Star Trek: Picard review: “Et in “Arcadia Ego, Part 1” and “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2” (S1, E9 & E10)

Posted on March 31, 2020March 31, 2020 by aussiemoose

SPOILERS AHEAD … AND TRUST … AND OLD FRIENDS … AND THE END OF THE UNIVERSE? Picard is, especially in its epic, edge-of-your-seat finale that sees the fate of the universe hang once again in the balance, proof positive that it is not only possible to go back but to Continue Reading

Posted In TV

Weekday pop art: Classic album covers receive the social distancing treatment #COVID19

Posted on March 31, 2020March 30, 2020 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTSocial distancing is the new normal and it will be for a while. 6 feet or 1.8 meters is the distance that experts recommend we keep between each other. We will rock again soon. Just remember to keep the 6 feet distance. It will save lives. (synopsis via Laughing Squid) Continue Reading

Posted In Music

Book review: The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

Posted on March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 by aussiemoose

Every good thing, so the saying goes, must come to an end, driven by a harsh chronological reality which has no place for favouritism, sentimentality or once transcendent power. Whether the Emirate of Granada on the Iberian peninsula is one of those good things is entirely dependent on whether you Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Book review: The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

Posted on March 29, 2020March 29, 2020 by aussiemoose

Books with quirky premises are always a challenge to execute successfully. Either you don’t make the most of the idea underpinning the narrative and the story falls flat, taking the ascendant expectations of your readers along with it; or, you over-egg the concept and the book ends up feel so Continue Reading

Posted In Books

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Recent Posts

  • Sunny days are back again for Sesame Street as it debuts on its new home
  • We’re so back … Thoughts on Nobody Wants This S2
  • Book review: Frankie by J. M. Gutsch and Maxim Leo
  • Retro Christmas movie review: Haul Out the Holly
  • Halloween book review: Alice by Christina Henry

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RSS SparklyPrettyBriiiight

  • Retro Christmas movie review: Haul Out the Holly
    (courtesy IMDb) There’s a strange disconnect that can emerge when you’re consuming festively themed pop culture – for instance, you might be perfectly fine with reading endlessly escapist, coincidence-full rom-com novels but find their Hallmark equivalents to be a Christmassy bridge too far. You know there’s a strange kind of Continue Reading
  • Halloween book review: Alice by Christina Henry
    It’s quite the thing these days to take a classic novel as inspiration, or even an ancient one in some cases, and take it to new and exciting places that honour the original work and author but explore new territory. In many cases, it’s done brilliantly and originally well, as Continue Reading
  • The spirit of Halloween future: Teaser trailer for 2026’s Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
    (courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTShaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom sees the residents of Mossy Bottom Farm looking forward to Halloween – until the clumsy Farmer trashes the Flock’s beloved pumpkin patch! When Shaun turns into mad scientist to help fix the problem, things rapidly spiral out of control… With Continue Reading
  • Halloween retro animated movie: Coraline
    (courtesy IMP Awards) There’s often admittance by people that they are “late to the party”, as if watching or reading or whatever something long after it’s come out – or sometimes, mere weeks, such is the frantic and unforgiving pace of the modern digital age which eats its newly-released young Continue Reading
  • Halloween book review: The Last Bookstore on Earth
    (courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Any time any author decides to take a well-established genre, give it a good shake-up and reshape its form entirely is a good time. Especially when it comes one as well-trafficked as the end-of-the-world genre which has been pretty much full-to-bursting with zombies and aliens and Continue Reading
  • Halloween Family Guy special 2025: “A Little Fright Music” (review)
    (courtesy IMDb) Halloween is definitely the one festival of the year where you are fully and absolutely allowed to get your freak on, to let loose, defy assumptions and expectations … and lie to your wives about going trick or treating? Hmmmm, not sure the last one is really part Continue Reading
  • Book review: Our Life in a Day by Jamie Fewery
    (courtesy Hachette Australia) Whenever we’re asked to pick the highlights for anything, whether it’s a relationship or an overseas trip or our childhood, we unerringly pick the glowingly positive high points, driven by some unspoken acknowledgement that for something to be a highlight it must have unquestionably upbeat qualities. But Continue Reading
  • The short and the short of it: It’s garden gnomes vs. golf club in FOREVER
    (courtesy YouTube (c) Omeleto) SNAPSHOTThe story begins in a cheerful and peaceful backyard garden, where brightly painted gnomes stand proudly among flowers and trimmed grass in quirky poses and scenarios. Bathed in sunlight and silence, their existence is static yet content. But their serene existence is disrupted when a golf Continue Reading
  • Book review: Tiny Uncertain Miracles by Michelle Johnston
    (courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) It is hard, if not next to impossible when you are caught down in the depths of grief and loss, and the suffocating smallness of life that often comes with it, not to feel as if there is any hope left in life. But as Continue Reading
  • Molly does her best to live up to her promise in Loot S3, E1-3 (review)
    (courtesy IMP Awards) The great joy of Loot, not just in the first three episodes of its third season but in the first two superlative seasons too, is that it is just so damn funny. Not just funny bog standard ordinary but cleverly inspired, oneliner-quoting funny, the kind of sitcom Continue Reading
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